A View Of A Collegiate Swimming Team 's Success And Methodology

Every elite athlete has psychological training and uses the process of goal setting in order to enhance their performance. Goal setting is used to enhance concentration, build self confidence and to manage time and other resources. (Tony M 1995, page 259)

Imagine taking one step into a chlorine-filled arena. The humid air rushes onto your skin. An immense smile spreads across your face. This is because you know everything is about to change. In less than 24 hours you will be holding a glistening gold medal in your hand, standing up on the podium while the Star Spangled Banner blares for the whole world to hear and tears will stream down your face. Taking one look back at your coach, Teri McKeever, you realize if it wasn’t for her you would not be here. Graciously, you run up, swing your arms around her body, and embrace her in a powerful hug that says it all. Swimming is a very intense sport and consumes every second of a swimmer’s free time. However, putting in hundreds

When it’s lacrosse season, I know I have to make sacrifices and manage my time wisely. It is important to me that I remain dedicated to lacrosse when I make the choice to play because I not only made the commitment to myself, but more importantly to my teammates and to my coach. Swimming is another activity that exemplifies my dedication. I have been swimming on Three Village Swim Club since I was 10 years old. There is no doubt that Three Village requires the highest level of dedication. With deciding to continue to swim each year, I commit myself to practice 2 to 3 hours a day, 7 days a week. Over the many years I have been a team member, there were definitely times I wanted to just quit and give up, but I knew this was something I loved to do and I would have to overcome the hard times in order to continue doing what I loved. Swimming allowed me

During this positivity mission, one of the most memorable moments occurred at the Niagara LSC Championships. A few newer faces joined us this year, which was a perfect opportunity to get to know some of the swimmers in other levels. Following one of the new swimmer’s races, I turned to him on the bench and complimented his excellent race. I will never forget the smile looking back at me when he asked in disbelief, “You know my name and you watched me?”. My answer was simple, “Of course, you are my teammate”.

When I first joined the North Attleboro Swim Team my freshman year of high school, I did not know what to expect. Prior to joining, I had never swam on a team before so it was a whole new experience to me. As the first week of swim started, I was apprehensive if I wanted to continue since I was not on the same caliber as my other teammates were. The practices were brutal but extremely rewarding, as I strived to prove myself and to my coaches. As my freshman season was under way, a couple of upperclassmen took

During the spring of 2015, I missed all of the time cuts to make Speedo Sectionals, forcing me to compete in a much slower meet at the end of the season. There are few things I have experienced that are more crushing than trying my hardest and falling short of my goal. Despite the heavy disappointment, I used the opportunity to harden my resolve and use my strengths to my greatest advantage. Along with my coach’s help, I used my ability to think strategically and hone my technique through focus on the smallest details from how I would approach a swim mentally to how I would warm up. My coach had many important and useful suggestions and lessons from his past experience that required me to be an active learner that could apply his information.

Competing in high school athletics was the highlight of my time at Sterling High School, If I could I’d go back and do it all over agin. It allowed me to learn basic life skills, such as time management, self-accountability, leadership, and teamwork. But the most important thing it brought me was a strong support system built up of teammates, coaches, competitors, and officials. My sophomore English teacher once joked that “the girl’s swim team is like a cult” which is pretty close to the truth. From early August to late November twenty girls, a diver or two, and a pair of coaches were inseparable. Together we suffered together through every practice and worked to improve not only ourselves but each other. It was these long hours that shaped

The school day ends, and while most students go home, swimmers still have one final practice to complete before heading home. In the time before practice starts, those who are participating in conference take a look at the psych sheet with all their times and competitors’ times with mixed emotions.

“I can’t imagine where we would be in life if we were not happy with our experiences. I have never been one to be driven by anything other than an appreciation for life. That is the vision through which I run my life.” Staying happy and curious is a good way to keep going in life on a path to success. Prior to making a move to Tide Swimming in Virginia Beach, Jackson Roach was the National Youth Team Head Coach for the United States and previous to that National Team Coach’s and Athlete’s Consultant. Roach has more than 40 years of high level coaching experience, which includes mentoring and training olympic medalist and multiple national swimming champions (Roach, 2017). Jackson Roach can be credited for many notable success stories among many Olympians which has aided USA Swimming multiple times to Olympic victory. Roach’s history has proven that his strategy of applying past knowledge to new situations in order to succeed, along with understanding each individual is a perfect formula for attaining each swimmer’s full potential.

In Damon Burton’s article, “Winning Isn’t Everything: Examining the Impact of Performance Goals on Collegiate Swimmers’ Cognitions and Performance,” (1989) he assesses the effectiveness of a goal setting training (GST) program and the impact it has on collegiate swimmers’ perceived ability, performance, and competitive thoughts, such as anxiety and confidence. In this study, males and females on the varsity swim teams of a Big 10 university either participated in a 5-month long GST program or they did not participate in any program. The season-long training period was necessary to allow athletes the time to acclimate to the program, master goal setting skills, and develop a competitive success history (Burton 1989). In addition, the GST program trained both athletes and coaches in order to create an environment that fosters the development of specific, short-term, and individualized performance goals.

At Emory, I feel that I could most accurately be described as a student-athlete. Academic success takes priority while I’m at Emory, but swimming is a close second. Spending hours daily in the pool, I have become a part of a tight-knit collection of academically and athletically prosperous students. Struggling through difficult sets and disappointing races together makes celebrating success even sweeter. We lean on each other for strength when we feel as if we don’t have enough individually. This team is comprised of caring individuals who work together to make the whole better than the individuals. From this community I have become a better team player and now I can add to the uplifting environment by drawing upon some of my innate qualities that make me a good teammate: I am supportive, dedicated, patient, kind, and hardworking. One of the unique characteristics of the swim team is that we don’t only work on creating a great community within the team, but we try to spread that excitement and desire for success to other communities. The swim team makes great contributions the Emory community by hosting Special Olympics every week at our pool and making appearances at many events such as sporting events and freshman move

The United States is without a doubt a sports culture. We just finished a Sunday dedicated to football also known as Super bowl and now we are about to partake a month of March Madness in basketball. One thing that is shown by the athletes is definitely competitiveness. Some athletes motto seem to be eat, breath and compete. No matter the event/ task some just have that competitive streak in them in everything they do. Due to competitive disposition, student athletes are more motivated in academic endeavors

A sampling of sport participants was surveyed using a 2x2 achievement goal framework with the intent of gaining an understanding of coach’s support for autonomy and how it complied with the basic psychological and motivational needs that an athlete might exhibit. Those motivational needs would be divided into four major categories which are components of two major halves, those four parts being, mastery avoidance goals, mastery performance goals, performance approach goals, and performance avoidance goals (Weston, 2011).

Coach P.’s training program should have focused more on psychological variables and group processes earlier in the season. Instead, training was focused on improving individual team member performance. The Varsity team comprised of the eight top individual performers (Snook & Polzer, 2004). Mistrust between Varsity team members began developing following spring break. Lack of trust and other related psychological issues prevented the Varsity team from synchronizing their rowing even though they were the top individual performers.

By this time I had started to go through puberty and became taller which enabled me to swim faster. The morning group was full of dedicated swimmers who were crazy enough to get up every morning to go jump into a pool and practice. Of course I was no different, but during April of that season I had started to lose my motivation. I began to skip practices and gave my parents excuses, which then they told me to take it easy. After two months of periodic practices, I realized that swimming was an activity that I wanted to do and that I loved, and I decided that I would not allow myself to quit, no matter how hard it became. When the new season started, I started to push myself, trying to keep up to the faster swimmers. I became close with my team mates as people who go through pain together get closer. We started to have more fun together from going out, to having funny conversations in the locker rooms. I also began to do travel meets where we would spend a few days together, eating, sleeping, and swimming. I spent more time out of the pool with my friends and even became romantically involved with one. Now, swimming has become one of the most important things to me, it has been the activity that has the most influence on my life. From my work ethic, sleeping habits, to my choice of friends, all of them are tied to